Chaucers Use of Clothing: an Effective Rhetorical Device In Literature, as in real life, characters are sometimes judged by their appearance. The description of clothing provides detail and comment on those wearing them. Chaucers uses of artifice in The Canterbury Tales function as gauges of the social status and economic wealth, and emotional condition of each pilgrim. Artifice effectively provides a badge of humanity, symbolic of each characters fallibility. Yet clothing simultaneously imposes upon the characters literary stereotypes, which they consequentially adopt. Unable to transcend these ascribed roles, the pilgrims sometimes find themselves bound by literary stereotypes and narrative function, which they tend to fulfill rather than reject. Although Chaucers Canterbury Tales transcend a Romantic stereotype, his characters often do not. They find themselves bound to the conventions of Romance, as they are bound by the clothes that define them. Chaucers materialistic focus enhances this metaphor and deconstructs the purism of Christianity throughout their physical journey. This aspect of characterization functions to illuminate the meanings inherent in the costumes of the secular pilgrims, revealing the extent of their conformity, through their dress, to 14th century social, political, and religious norms.The General Prologue provides a great deal of information regarding the Knights appearance. The Knight entitled by rank to wear the finest of garments and clothes, is dressed in armor that is shabby, rusty, and possibly useless. The fact that he humbly adorns the uncomfortable suit, and even carries his bloodstained sword, indicates the knights sense of honor and tradition, but also shows the means by which his clothing serves to weigh him down. The idea of an artifice, such as armor, that was designed to protect but later becomes a binding, and ultimately harmful, is a prominent theme throughout the tale. In the c...
